Louisiana arrests spark race rally
Updated on 20 September 2007
From America - a story of racial tension, violence, hatred and abuse - an all too familiar tale of divisions in the deep south.
A schoolyard tree has reopened America's race wounds. Black students have been accused of murder. An all white jury. Has anything changed in the deep south? It reads like a tale from the height of the American civil rights marches of the 1960s: thousands of demonstrators gathering in the deep south, to protest at blatant racism, alive and kicking in the 21st century.
The town of Jena in Louisiana only has a population of 3,000, but today that is likely to swell to as many as 40,000: for protests are planned about the unequal police treatment.
At the centre of the outrage is a group of black students known as the "Jena 6", who were arrested and charged with attempted murder after a fight broke out on campus.
What began as a small-town row about black students trying to sit under what was known as a Whites-only tree, is rapidly developing wider political ramifications.
